


it's not just something you take, it's given (The King and Consort Not!fic)

by ElijahDarling



Category: The Exorcist (TV)
Genre: Alpha Marcus Keane, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, Crack Treated Seriously, Enthusiastic Consent, Families of Choice, Identity Porn, Language Barrier, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Not!Fic, Omega Tomas Ortega, Political Alliances, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Soft Boys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 00:10:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16586966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElijahDarling/pseuds/ElijahDarling
Summary: 'I think my initial premise when imagining this was “what would a person get if they combined Fantasy Politics with Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics with Identity Porn with Language Barrier with Political Marriage slash Arranged Marriage and Boys Being Soft?”'I will not write 200k words for an epic slow burn involving a disgraced Lord Marcus marrying Tomas (the captured king of a country that his country is warring with) while they are also dealing with Fantastical Sexism because of Alpha/Omega dynamics and (by the way) no one knows that Tomas is said enemy king. But you all can read about my unhinged fic idea anyway.





	it's not just something you take, it's given (The King and Consort Not!fic)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [litra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/litra/gifts).



> At Litra’s request, I am sharing this floating Not!fic that has been living in my head and I will never fully write, because I do not have the time or discipline to commit to the 200k words it would need to be what I want it to be. So here’s a rough(ish) outline, and further chapters added to this may expand on the outline, or even be full on scenes for this story.

I think my initial premise when imagining this was “what would a person get if they combined Fantasy Politics with Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics with Identity Porn with Language Barrier with Political Marriage slash Arranged Marriage and Boys Being Soft?”

 

So. We have two countries at war with each other. I’ve been calling them pseudo-Mexico and pseudo-Britain/America which isn’t all that catchy but this isn’t an actual fic and I can be lazy where I choose to be. PM and PBA for short.

 

PM and PBA have been warring for fucking  _ decades _ . The reason is unimportant. Basically their battlefront is a nightmare and even the peaceful parts of their respective countries are held in constant tension that one day the battlefront will be in their front yard and are in a state of mourning and despair. PM’s government in recent years has been fairly turbulent - they have kings and queens and royal families, but those titles are earned instead of inherited. (Kinda presidential. Kinda not. Don’t pay too much attention to it.) Basically every thing to do with being on the throne in PM has been incredibly bloody up until very recently, when Tomas Ortega has (after years of community outreach and acting as a battlefield medic and basically being a Badass Pacifist) gained himself the title of King.

 

PBA, meanwhile, has a royal family which is All About the Bloodlines, but most of the actual governing is done by various titled lords and ladies (which is also all very bloodline focused but you know). The only important you need to know about here is Devon Bennett. He’s basically the only part of the acting government who isn’t actively Shady As Hell.

 

King Tomas is dealing with his new position like a, well, like a person who is unaware that his advisers are conspiring against him because he is determined to bring peace to his country and the advisers have for the last 15 years or so been benefiting by leading their rulers astray and then getting them killed or imprisoned and are in this just to profit off a country that is suffering. His sister is totally aware that his advisers are up to something and when she confronts Tomas with her worries he is all “I can’t exactly fire these people - I need to work slowly and within the system and maybe I can talk some of them around” - Olivia is just like “you’re adorable” and also fucking terrified that her brother is gonna goddamn die.

 

Tomas is aware that his position is unique. He isn’t a warrior or a general that won the heart of his country through battlefield victories, and he isn’t a career politician that can manipulate and maneuver with ease. He isn’t even an Alpha, which isn’t gonna completely sink him, but does mean he has to be better, smarter, and work harder to be taken seriously. He has earned his country’s regard through around fifteen years of unwavering dedication to Helping, and almost every war company he has served with would gladly die for him - and could tell you stories of him tending to the warriors on the battlefield, and that in his medic tent there were no enemies, only people that needed mending. It was not unusual in his service as a healer on the battlefront that soldiers from PBA ended up in that tent. His people, tired of war, are like This Is Our Dude. He Will Make Peace. We Love Him. 

 

(Tomas Ortega aka some sort of MLK Jr/Gandhi/Nelson Mandela/Harriet Tubman/Malala Yousafzai sort figure  _ idk pick your poison _ .)

 

Anyway. His Evil Advisers are like “fuck, less war equals less money and comfort and power for us”, and decide that he gotta go. He is Beloved by the people though, so they need to be extra sneaky. They convince him that he needs to lead a mission on the battlefront to Prove Himself because blah blah blah not a warrior and an  _ Omega _ to boot - tsk.

 

They put him with a group of barely out of diapers, raw young warriors and in a position that almost guarantees they’ll be soundly defeated and fucking dead. Against all odds, Tomas gets every single soldier under his command out of there, but at the cost of being captured himself. His Evil Advisers kinda shrug and think “good enough we guess”.

 

Meanwhile, Tomas is being tortured and interrogated by the PBA generals that feel a little torn about doing this to some Omega that they feel must be vaguely important, but truly they are goddamn clueless as to who this guy is and all they figure out is that he’s not a warrior at all even if he’s holding up pretty admirably to torture. Bennett is brought in to question him because he knows Spanish and Tomas has only been speaking that (also Bennett has like a million ears to the ground and may be able to ferret out who the fuck Tomas is). 

 

Bennett is like, why not ask their government what they are willing to trade for this great hostage we have? We’ve traded prisoners before. 

 

The Evil Advisers are Kinda Busy with how pissed the people are that their Beloved King is gone. The last thing they want is for the PBA to figure out who they have and kill him because the people are right on the verge of murdering them, but they also don’t fucking want Tomas back. So they make up a story for Bennett and company that Tomas is actually the King’s mistress (which the PBA believes because Omegas never are prominent leaders in positions of power and of course the only reason a Omega would be in a position of power would be because of who they were fucking). They then turn around and claim to PM that King Tomas has left the country to pursue the lover that PBA captured. Playing on the fact that he’s too foolhardy and heroic to truly be a loyal and steady King. You know Omegas, always following their hearts like dumbasses. So emotional.

 

Bennett is like. Um. No. But he doesn’t want to clue his other fellows into his suspicions that they are being fed bullshit, so he proposes that they send the “King’s mistress” inland to keep as a bargaining chip.

 

SO HERE IS WHERE MARCUS COMES IN. ( _ fucking finally _ )

 

Marcus is a disgraced lord (of course), who used to be one of PBA’s greatest warriors (of course), but due to Certain Things and PTSD he left the battlefront and retired to his estate inland and Bennett is like his only friend in the government but their relationship is very “fuck you” “no, fuck  _ you _ ”. So Bennett does his part and sends Tomas his way. Marcus is like “why are you sending me an enemy Omega who doesn’t speak English - what about the impropriety you are always lecturing me about?” and Bennett goes “fair enough, I order you to marry him then. There, no impropriety.”

 

Tomas is initially in very bad shape and laid up in bed for the first two weeks he’s at Marcus’. He continues to pretend to only know Spanish and quietly observes the household. He likes his new husband well enough; Marcus is almost painfully kind to him, if a little gruff and unpolished in his manner. He hires a doctor to come and stay with them and look after Tomas (Rose Cooper is an old family friend and once Tomas overhears her threatening to castrate Marcus if he lays a hand on Tomas without his consent). They spend a lot of their time talking at each other in their respective native languages; Marcus telling him about the household, and ranting about Bennett and company, and Tomas making sweet, intimate observations about Marcus as well as some rather dry jokes about the situation they found themselves in.

 

They both do try to “learn” the language their new husband speaks. Tomas pretending to be bad at a language he is already fluent in, and Marcus just genuinely bad and only managing to pick up a few phrases - mostly he begins to understand more than he could ever fucking speak and also his accent is painful. 

 

It is Harper, Marcus’ young ward, that truly picks up Spanish like a pro. Through chatting with her, Tomas comes to learn why his husband left his esteemed warrior career behind and never looked back. Marcus had been fighting for literal decades in the war, since he was a young boy of twelve. For forty years he fought for his country, and as time marched on he found himself increasingly isolated and disheartened in the government that runs the country he loves. He apparently caused quite the scene when he declared his retirement to the lords and ladies - that he “is a patriot, and that [he’ll] only serve his country, but never any of them again”. 

 

(Tomas finds out even later that what prompted Marcus to retire was when he discovered Harper, at that time a young girl no older than twelve, serving as a child soldier in his war party. He’d taken her and the other children there away from the battlefield and never returned. Rose Cooper’s Omega Andrew Kim had adopted all the other kiddos Marcus had rescued.

 

He tells his husband, in Spanish, that he’s “created something sacred here”.)

 

Three months after starting to live together, and being reluctantly married, they both drop the reluctance and consummate. It is very Soft Lighting lovely. Tomas is all “hi I love this one”, etc.

 

MEANWHILE PM is in this very weird stand off with PBA. They’ve completely abandoned the battlefront and have not conducted any raids on the enemy. PBA is at a complete loss as to why they seem to be holding at a sort of silent treatment truce. Bennett is Very Suspicious, but not in the same way the rest of his countrymen are very suspicious. Cause like, he hasn’t forgotten about Tomas, and he has noticed that the stalemate started after they attempted to do a little hostage negotiation that basically ended with “keep him”.

 

He writes a letter to Marcus. We don’t get to know the content of said letter. Because fuck the readers right? Suspense and plot building I guess?

 

FAST FORWARD A LITTLE and Tomas is pregnant.

 

Fuck.

 

He has a crisis over this, because up until now he’s managed a sort of denial over all of this but having a kiddo with Marcus? Yeah, this makes everything super hairy. Because he’s been keeping tabs on PM as best he can, and he knows his sister has seized the throne and is acting as interim Queen while he is missing, and he’s been reading Marcus’ newspaper. He can piece together what’s happening even if PBA is largely oblivious. He knows that his sister has been searching for him, that she is waiting and planning how to find and get him back - he knows it won’t be long before he is rescued home.

 

Tomas has been resigned to the broken heart he’ll have when he leaves his husband (it’s part of the reason he still pretending not to understand English), but he cannot leave a child behind, and he can’t take a child from Marcus - not when he sees how he treats Harper - how he dotes, how he looks at Tomas with longing in his eyes after they come across kiddos playing or babies with their parents.

 

Tomas knows that he can’t wait for Olivia’s spies to take him home. He has to leave, as soon as possible, before Marcus knows that he is pregnant. He makes Rose promise not to tell Marcus (they’ve been close over the last ten months, and he still remembers her defending him before she even knew him - Tomas knows she’ll keep his secret.)

 

He packs a bag, but is stopped by Harper. By now she is near fluent in Spanish, and the main person in the house that Tomas actually converses with. She knows he’s running away and says as much to him, but also that she doesn’t blame him. “We aren’t home,” she sniffs. Harper is trying to hold it together and also is remembering being an unwilling soldier and she loves Tomas so she never wants him to feel caged like she did, but she loves Tomas and doesn’t want to lose him forever.

 

She tells him that she’ll come with him. “It’s not safe for an Omega.” Tomas knows that he could handle himself, but he is pregnant and… well, he can’t exactly stop her. Even though his guilt is fucking tripled because now he’s not just taking Marcus’ and his child, but he’s taking Harper, his charge, and the child of Marcus’ heart. He tells her that they can travel together as far as the border, but at he is with his people, she must return to hers. She must return to Marcus.

 

(Like, you know, Tomas is already dying too.)

 

They travel for two days straight because he has to push through and he knows the second they stop to rest he’s going to fall apart, and he wants as much distance between him and Marcus before that happens. He’s all “if I don’t put some space between us, I will come crawling back and I can’t leave my people just because I fell in love with someone”.

 

Harper finally convinces him to rest at a tavern and they get separate rooms. He needs to space to let himself fall apart and cry. Tomas is being all heartbroken as if he isn’t aware that he’s in a slow burn romance that promises Angst With A Happy Ending, cause he’s at the angst part of that. He decides that this is his one night to mourn what could have been and say goodbye to who he was with Marcus and start to be who he is after Marcus. 

 

Then he wakes up at midnight cause he heard a thump in his room and there’s fucking Marcus Keane taking off his boots in the chair all “hi honey miss me?”  _ in perfect fucking Spanish, accent included. _

 

Tomas, you’d think, would have questions about that.

But fuck questions. That’s Future Tomas’ problem. Present Tomas is going to have sex with his husband, thanks.

 

We flashback to ~special context that we missed before because most of this fucking thing is from Tomas’ point of view. The context is Bennett’s letter(s) to Marcus, which were all “you’ve become very familiar with the enemy and you speak Spanish and you’re savvy enough to figure shit out, so I’m sending a political hostage to you. P.S. you should marry him to cover our asses. Thanks.” You’d think there’d be a lot of cleverness and Spy versus Spy in this flashback but it’s honestly Marcus falling head over heels for Tomas within a week, even though he’s positive that Bennett is right and Tomas is Hiding Things - like the fact that he definitely understands English.

 

He decides that he’ll protect his Not Really Husband but Yes Totally His Husband even knowing that he’ll probably leave one day and that’s okay. He tells Bennett to fuck off. And proceeds to pine ridiculously for Tomas and the unexpected sweet things he says and bite his lip every time he also says something hilarious. Cause, you know, he’s not supposed to understand anything his perfect husband says. 

 

The barrier breaks down the day that Tomas tells him that his home is a sacred place. He can’t help but to kiss him, and well yeah. 

 

Oh, and Bennett’s last letter to him was mentioning that Tomas almost certainly has more direct ties to PM’s throne than bedmate, but that was Bennett forgetting to fuck off. So.

 

Back to the present, which is now both their problem.

 

Marcus levels with Tomas about all this while they are curled up together in bed. Confesses all. Then he admits that he used to think he could let Tomas go without protest and without explanation, but he can’t now. He can’t just let him go and be left with nothing. Not after everything.

 

Tomas asks him if he could let him go without protest and without explanation - if he came with them.

 

Yes, it seems, is the answer to that.

 

Harper at this point is both Elated and Terrified because she was secretly hoping she could convince Tomas to come back home based on how fucking sad he’s been and missing Marcus, but now that Marcus is coming with them it seems like they definitely are going to PM and while she was prepared to be strong, she’s still only a young adult being asked to go back to the battlefront - even if just to pass through.

 

Marcus contacts some of Bennett’s allies - smugglers that get people over the border and through the battlefront all the time. Tomas is like “hi I love you” and Marcus is all “no, I love  _ you _ ”. 

 

They make it to PM with the usual roadtrip hiccups. Some hijinks. I AM NOT WRITING 2k OF HIJINKS THIS OUTLINE IS ALREADY OUT OF CONTROL. 

 

Olivia is like “Tomas, you’re late.” Tomas is like “Should I be bowing?”

 

Marcus is all “yeah I guess it is a big secret to be the Queen’s brother, I can respect you hiding that”. 

 

There is an awkward cringing silence. Tomas may clear his throat and give Marcus the biggest “sorry I fucked this up so much” smile. “Actually, Marcus… funny story.”

 

Later, Marcus kneels in Tomas bedroom (their bedroom, he guesses) and asks Tomas to tell him how subjects worship in this country.

 

EVEN LATER, Tomas announces their marriage to his people and also his adoption of Harper as the daughter of his heart as well as by marriage. Marcus and Harper are Overwhelmed. Most of their father/daughter relationship has gone unspoken and to have Tomas actually call it what it is and say that he feels the same way - that’s… well.

 

It’s A Lot.

 

Meanwhile, we get a peek at some of PM’s citizens POV on the whole fucking situation. And it turns out they are thrilled for the most part? Their Beloved King is back and he brought himself a bridegroom that is tough as nails and is still a bit of a legend - one that they feared at one point and now is brought to heel? Maybe the Evil Advisers were right about their king going to find his lover in enemy territory - but goddamn this is a kinda unexpected swerve on that narrative.

 

And is Tomas the reason Marcus retired to begin with? Like, did they meet in Tomas medic tent and fall in love and Tomas convinced the Lion of the Battlefront to relent and then tamed him? The rumors are on fire and it’s all very romantic. 

 

There is more to all this, but that’s about as far as I got on my own before I was ordered to Not!fic it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Don't @ me about how they are speaking English and Spanish when possibly Spain and England don't even exist in this world.


End file.
